Indaswamp wrote:One other noteworthy instance occurred on our hunt monday morning. We had a flock of 3 mottled ducks fly over the front of the blind low right to left at about 25 yards. I'm on the left and take the lead bird and fold it, woods is in the middle and takes the second bird and puts it down. guy n the end got two shots off and misses clean before his shooting lane ends...the last mottled is a hen and she flies off 200 yards and sits down on the marsh...hailing a lost hen the entire time. Non-stop she is quacking and hailing in desperation. I start answering her with a mallard drake on my pintail whistle while woods quacks at her. she starts swimming our way talkin the whole way for about 5-7 minutes. Then she gets up, flies on a sting straight at us and I wiff bigger than schit at 25 yards. she flairs and mhn finally puts her down. That does not happen very often at all with wary mottled ducks. upon the dog retrieving the duck, it's obvious why she flew back in to her death....young of the year and 1/2 the size of the adults we shot. Either that or she was a midget duck.......

Take em however you can get em. How do mottled ducks compare to mallards in size? I've yet to cross one off my list.

Indaswamp wrote:One other noteworthy instance occurred on our hunt monday morning. We had a flock of 3 mottled ducks fly over the front of the blind low right to left at about 25 yards. I'm on the left and take the lead bird and fold it, woods is in the middle and takes the second bird and puts it down. guy n the end got two shots off and misses clean before his shooting lane ends...the last mottled is a hen and she flies off 200 yards and sits down on the marsh...hailing a lost hen the entire time. Non-stop she is quacking and hailing in desperation. I start answering her with a mallard drake on my pintail whistle while woods quacks at her. she starts swimming our way talkin the whole way for about 5-7 minutes. Then she gets up, flies on a sting straight at us and I wiff bigger than schit at 25 yards. she flairs and mhn finally puts her down. That does not happen very often at all with wary mottled ducks. upon the dog retrieving the duck, it's obvious why she flew back in to her death....young of the year and 1/2 the size of the adults we shot. Either that or she was a midget duck.......

Take em however you can get em. How do mottled ducks compare to mallards in size? I've yet to cross one off my list.

just a tad bit smaller than a big fat mallard....

As far as taking 'em how we could get them- we did a lot of that on this trip....notice all the spoonbills in the kill shots!!!

**edit- but luckily not a one with rice breast, so they will be popper meat for the grill.

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

Locked&Loaded wrote:Swamp- I enjoyed the heck out of your write up and the pictures. Looks like you guys had a great time!

Thanks L&L...The whole camp experience really brings it to a different level. Being out in the middle of nowhere add to it as well, but it really sucked when we were trying to get woods to the ER! Now you guys know why we will never hunt alone down there. It's too dangerous.

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

18javelin wrote:I always feel like I put a lot of work into getting on birds (what few we have) then I see your write ups and list and gear and camp and think holy hell that takes some dedication on your alls part. Looks like so much fun swamp hope woods heals up quick.

Naw...Byers is the one with massive dedication to do what he does for the ducks. ME-I just let nature do her thing and take advantage of the bounty the louisiana marshes bring.

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

18javelin wrote:I always feel like I put a lot of work into getting on birds (what few we have) then I see your write ups and list and gear and camp and think holy hell that takes some dedication on your alls part. Looks like so much fun swamp hope woods heals up quick.

different type of "work" here, but work nonetheless... no truck miles on the roads, more boat time though.

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

18javelin wrote:I always feel like I put a lot of work into getting on birds (what few we have) then I see your write ups and list and gear and camp and think holy hell that takes some dedication on your alls part. Looks like so much fun swamp hope woods heals up quick.

Naw...Byers is the one with massive dedication to do what he does for the ducks. ME-I just let nature do her thing and take advantage of the bounty the louisiana marshes bring.

I concur but byers is on a whole different level than a duck camp for public land hunting. He has a Empire lol

Underradar wrote:Well, its sad really. One day he's happily posting pics of road killed coyotes he posed as if he shot them, the next, he's stomped down the shower drain like a soft turd.

grizz18 wrote:Awesome stuff there swamp/woods. I was waiting on this thread. The whole production always amazes me, from the camp to the cooking to the killing...awesomeness.

thanks grizz... I was hoping to stack up about 100# of catfish and take a picture, but Woods hand injury derailed that plan.

Oh- one other noteworthy mention....Our buddy made a live catfish box out of 1 1/2" PVC and some coated crawfish trap wire. He added a door, some floats and a tie off rope to it...they had nowhere to put it at our buddies camp, so we put it at ours (we can slide it under our deck in the front since we have a shorter 24' pontoon in the middle there.)

Anyways, the box was sitting on the boat as we were rigging it up to put it in the water. A boat drives by and asks-"What's the cage for?", I respond without missing a beat, "We are doing a live action nutria cage fight to the death tonight. Bring plenty of money and beer and you can join us!"

The Cajun 7 Course Meal; 1 lb. of boudin and a six pack of Abita beer.

grizz18 wrote:Awesome stuff there swamp/woods. I was waiting on this thread. The whole production always amazes me, from the camp to the cooking to the killing...awesomeness.

thanks grizz... I was hoping to stack up about 100# of catfish and take a picture, but Woods hand injury derailed that plan.

Oh- one other noteworthy mention....Our buddy made a live catfish box out of 1 1/2" PVC and some coated crawfish trap wire. He added a door, some floats and a tie off rope to it...they had nowhere to put it at our buddies camp, so we put it at ours (we can slide it under our deck in the front since we have a shorter 24' pontoon in the middle there.)

Anyways, the box was sitting on the boat as we were rigging it up to put it in the water. A boat drives by and asks-"What's the cage for?", I respond without missing a beat, "We are doing a live action nutria cage fight to the death tonight. Bring plenty of money and beer and you can join us!"